Exclusive: Interview With Giants Best Player

The first-place Giants' best player might be a woman. Mission Rock Development director Fran Weld has been hitting it out of the park with the massive 27-acre project that will transform a barren AT&T Park surface parking lot into a mixed-used community. (Everyone should draft her in their Rotisserie Real Estate League.)

We snapped this of Fran, Allen Matkins’ Rick Mallory, Sares Regis’Taylor Greason, and Drawbridge Realty Trust’s Mark Whiting at the Stanford Professionals in Real Estate event at Three Embarcadero Center last week. She tells us new San Francisco businesses based at the project are estimated to generate over $1.2B in revenues annually and will create over 7,000 on-site jobs alone. Fran got her MBA from Stanford after a physics degree from MIT. (Although she’s from Boston, her favorite player is Buster Posey.)

A rendering of China Basin Park, which will link the northern and southern waterfronts. The park will accommodate more than 5,000 people and will include cafes and restaurants. The property is owned by the Port of San Francisco, so “the city is a hand-in-hand partner” Fran says. (Is that another way of saying red tape?) So far there have been no road blocks with the city and the "team is excited to launch the environmental review process early next year.” Once it gets under way in 2015, look for completion in 2021.

Mission Rock Square is designed after NYC's Bryant Park and will serve as the “community’s outdoor living room,” Fran tells us. Look for 1.7M SF of office space, 650 to 1,000 residential units, and 125k SF of retail. Pier 48 will be renovated as well to host conventions and events. “We think it’s a critical site for San Francisco, knitting together the urban fabric of the city,” Fran says. The development will make the ballpark far more attractive. When you arrive at the stadium now, you see an empty lot, a “windswept area, which isn’t the most welcoming to fans.” Big changes are coming for both the Giants and the city. (As long as it's not a change in the standings.)